Workmen's advocate., 1887-03-19

would at once he a happy and well-to-do people, relieved of the horrors of vice, crime and prostitution. But while gov emments pretend to protect the prop erty of the people, they merely protect property of d special kind, chiefly owned by special class representing but one. eighth of the whole people, and in doing so assist in the despoliation of the prop erty held by the other even-eighths- working strength and brain of the work ing people, and all that they possess and hold by the express will of their Gre ator It being so different in its Caarac- | ter and nature from all other acquired property and commodities in the market, because of its inseparability from the body, of its wealth-creating power to the purchaser after having paid a mere market price for it, and its perishable nature involving the death of it's posses sor, is it not q most shocking crime to leave such property unprotected, and to leave it to the unfeeling Jaw of supply and demand?
 Workingmen do you fully realize the sarcasm and contempt when you are told that you are God-lke creatures: the crowning glory of his creation, pos sessing all the superior attributes intend ed for man only, and endowed with all | the higher moral sentiments and feelings of spitual beings destined to enter the kingdom of heaven; and are demanded, at the same time, to place yourselves next morning on the market, between dressed hog and d bag of guano. each of you awaiting a bid: Pork might be in demand, as capitalists like ham; guano might also be in demand to raise more pork, while your labor is supplaDted by a machine and no bid offered for it. There you stand, the king of creation, the crowning effort of the universe re- duced in value below the level of all other commodities in the market that have no soul, no feeling and no necessi- ties-perishing for the want of a bid, and being fated to witness the agonies of your beloved wife and darling chil- 1 dren who are doomed to perish with you. Such is the state of affairs which you experience every day, and which time-serving toadies in the employ of the rich have the hardihood to defend as a God-ordained order of things; when in reality wage-slavery in it's present de- velopment exceeds by far the barbarity and cruelty of old time chattel slavery. To bring about affairs more humane and just, government founded upon principles such as are proclaimed ill the | Declaration of Independence, whose function it shall be to protect life, liber- ty and the pursuit of happiness-not to few to the exclusion of the many as now-but to all citizens alike, is the aim of Socialism. Socialists justly hold that a government does not do it's duty that does not protect the property inherent ill every human being, to wit: The working strength, representing the life, the economic and political liberty, the general happiness, and everything else that man is endowed with by his Creator, and which creates all other property And that the people who tolerate gov ernment that protects only the soulless property of the capitalists do not under stand the first and fundamental princi- pie of government, As the principal motive that impelled men to associate themselves together and thereby estab- fish government is self-help collectively, the old time-worn cry of ''self-heIp" on the part of capitalists and their satellites, who themselves were lifted up by special laws and immunities and especially through government credits and subsi- dies, needs no special attention. For self-help in the meaning of the capital ist, excludes all organization and govern ment. leaving the weak at the mercy of the strong who elbow themselves through. as in the case of our present disorganized industry, which is based on the principle of no government inter ference, and the consequence of which is the cause of our suffering.
 In trying to help ourselves individually each for himself, our interests clash; we oppose each other, and instead of assist ing and protecting. we plot against and ru;u each nthar Tharafora tba opl,-